Taking the Bend
by Laura Andrews
Summary: The train is late, and Jill are Eustace are nervous ... but for different reasons. Set during The Last Battle; slightly AU, I suppose, but could fit into canon. Eustace X Jill. One shot.


The train was late. Jill glanced around the station. Why was it so late? It would be today, of all days. Of course it didn't matter; Narnian time ran differently anyways. All the same, she hated waiting. Her stomach was all over knots, the same feeling she got before a difficult exam only worse.

She glanced over at Eustace. He stood a little ways off. He must feel as nervous as she did; he kept looking over in her direction, shifting from one foot to the other. Poor Scrubb (at times like this, he reminded her fondly of those days at Experiment House, and she could only think of him as Scrubb).

He seemed to be about as comfortable in a train station as on the edge of a cliff. Every time she thought about that cliff, her heart did a little flip of terror; she had made him fall, and what if Aslan hadn't been there? It didn't bear thinking of.

He finally noticed her staring at him and gave her a weak smile. She moved to stand next to him.

"I say, Scrubb, do you feel as I do?" she asked.

"Don't call me that, Pole… I mean, Jill," he said, and coughed.

"I mean, are you alright, Eustace?"

"Yes…, well, no. Er, I'm rather scared, actually. You?"

"I'm the same," she said. "I would feel better if I knew more about what was going on in Narnia. Do you know, this is the only time anyone has gone to Narnia, _knowing_ they were going."

He smiled.

"You made a rhyme," he said. "You should be a poet."

"Oh, come now, _Scrubb_ ," said Jill with a blush. "You know I'm no poet."

Eustace dug his hands deeply into his pockets and half turned away.

"Jill," he said. "I… Jill…" He stopped, and Jill waited patiently for him to continue.

"Oh, never mind," he said. And then, "There's the train!"

The whistle shrieked just as he spoke and the train rumbled into sight. Lucy, Aunt Polly, and the Professor joined them. Jill's heart began to pound. Suddenly she was reluctant to board. Who knew what they would find, or if they would ever return. The circumstances of this visit were so unusual. Perhaps they were not doing the right thing; after all, Aslan had told the Professor to bury the rings long ago. Could he really mean for them to be dug up and used again?

"Buck up, Jill." Eustace stood at her elbow. The train came to a halt at last, screeching and clanging.

The Professor helped Lucy and Aunt Polly up, and then Eustace pushed in front of Jill, boarded, and held out his hand for her. She took it; she felt a blush spreading over her face as she did so, and then she was inside the car.

Eustace indicated a seat and then slid in beside her.

"Well," he said. "We're off!"

He heaved a sigh and looked across the aisle at Lucy, who was speaking to Aunt Polly in low tones.

"Lucy says she has rather a beastly feeling about this," he said. "What about you?"

"I'm nervous, that's all," said Jill. "Oh!" as the train jerked forward. "Everything will turn out alright, like it always has, I suppose."

"Perhaps." Eustace fidgeted with his shirt collar, then with his buttons. "I … oh, bother, I'm no good. No good at speeches."

He was rather red. Jill couldn't deny the little jolt her heart gave every time he got this way, awkward and stammering. Or the feeling she got when he smiled at her. Hang it all, she was blushing again.

"Are you comfortable?" he asked.

"Yes, thanks."

"Good." He fidgeted some more. "Need a drink? I can get …"

"No thanks."

"Oh." He had half stood, then sat down, then stood up. "I think I'll get one. For me … not you. Unless. I mean, we can share if you decide … oh bother." He was gone. Poor Scrubb.

He came back a minute later, asked the others if they wanted anything to drink, and then sat down beside her again. He didn't have a cup with him, and Jill rather wished he had.

"I suppose it will all turn out," he said. "Narnia, I mean.."

"I hope so."

"But, in case it doesn't, well, I thought … I thought I should …" He turned a furious shade of scarlet.

"It's alright, Scrubb … Eustace. Whatever it is, I forgive you."

"No, no, it isn't that." He wiped his sleeve across his mouth, took a deep breath, and went down on one knee. He fumbled in his pocket. Jill choked back a gasp; her heart pounded. At last he found what he was looking for and pulled it out.

"Jill," he said, his manner suddenly as calm as if he were asking her the time. "Will you marry me?"

For a long minute, she stared at him with her mouth open. Then, finding her voice, she whispered,

"Of… of course I will… Scrubb, I-I mean Eustace!"

Losing all composure, Eustace showed the ring to Jill, saying,

"Oh, Jill… I'm so glad! There, hold out your hand. No, no, the other one!"

He was laughing and almost crying at the same time, and both their hands were trembling so that it took a bit of time to put the ring onto her finger. As soon as it was on, Jill burst into tears and a moment later, found herself in Eustace's tight embrace.

"We can get married in Narnia," she said when he had released her. "Won't it be splendid?"

"Yes! And then do it again in England later."

"Oh, Scrubb," laughed Jill, wiping away her tears. And, for once, he didn't seem to mind her calling him by his surname. "Oh, Scrubb! Eustace, what a surprise. Only, well, I suppose it's not, in a way. It's lovely. The ring, I mean." She knew she was babbling, but she didn't care. "Thank you. Thank you!"

"I - I've been thinking a great deal, lately," he said. "About you. And, well, I realized I could never marry someone who … well, that I couldn't talk to about Narnia. And you and I have been through so much together. And then I realized that, really, I had loved you for years. I think ever since that time in the tunnels of the Underworld, when all the lights had gone out… and we thought we were going to die. And you disappeared, and it was awful. Awful. We … I thought something had taken you. I suppose I knew it a bit then, how horrid it would be to be without you."

"For me it was, oh, I don't even know when." Jill pressed his hand in hers. "I suppose it was when we were on the mountain again, and … oh, I don't know. I've loved you a long time, but I couldn't tell if you felt the same way."

"I'm a silly fool," he said. "I can't … I wasn't raised to fall in love, so when I talk to you, I can't seem to talk at all. At least, not when we're … I mean, when we're having adventures or competing against each other I'm alright, but sometimes my tongue just goes into …" He shrugged and gave up.

"Do your parents know?" asked Jill after a while.

"Yes, I told them. They didn't interfere, but I know you're not the kind of girl they wanted me to marry. I was always supposed to marry someone like Alber … mum." He smiled, a real smile at last that lit up his face. "Why don't you show them your ring?" He motioned to the others, who were watching all the proceedings in amused silence.

Her ring was admired by everyone. Lucy gave her a tight hug and a whispered congratulations; Aunt Polly embraced her more gently, and wished her happiness; the Professor pressed her hands between his.

"I'm glad Eustace has done it," he said. "For the life of me, I will never understand why I didn't ask Polly the same thing when I was his age. I suppose I felt that we were too close as friends to be anything else." He sighed, but then brightened. "I wish you joy, my dear girl."

"Thank you," she said, with a catch in her throat.

Then they all crowded around Eustace, and there was laughter, and the congratulations went round again, and jokes were cracked.

At last, when things had settled down a bit, Eustace put his arm around Jill's waist and they walked up and down between the rows of seats, talking quietly.

"I say!" the Professor remarked a few moments later. "Is it my imagination, or is this train suddenly going a good deal too fast?"


End file.
